


Before the Bruises

by LittleBlueArtist



Series: Emotional Whiplash [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, He's reading goodnight moon, Isaac Feels, Isaac Lahey - Freeform, Isaac's background, Slight fluff, TW: Domestic Abuse, trigger warning domestic abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 12:22:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1510265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleBlueArtist/pseuds/LittleBlueArtist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He wanders around aimlessly for an hour before he comes to it. He knows he shouldn't--knows that it'll only hurt him. But what's that saying? Oh, right.</p><p>"Home is where the heart is."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before the Bruises

**Author's Note:**

> So Jeff Davis doesn't like to include the mental state of his characters so I'm doing it for him. I mean, come on, these kids have been through some pretty rough shit and you're telling me that they're just fine and dandy? I call BS.

The metal withheld his kicks and punches--his scratches and yells. It would be another two hours before he was let out, if he was lucky. If he stopped screaming. But he couldn't. The noises wouldn't stop no matter how many times he tried to get them to. If he didn't stop then he would stay in here for a long time. Then he started crying and oh how his father  _hated_ crying. "Isaac! You're dreaming. Isaac, wake up!"

The werewolf shot up at the unexpected voice. It was Erica. He must've fell asleep at her house from one of their movie nights. She looked him over, giving off an air of I'm-better-than-you, like she did to most people these days. The curly-haired boy wiped his tears and shakily stood up. He could feel the metal pressing on his fingers as he walked towards the door. "Uh, sorry. Bad dream," he mumbled, knowing that if she was listening she would hear his heart racing. He quickly went out the door and walked the way to Derek's. It was slow and peaceful. It gave him time to think.

He thought about Scott, just about the only friend he'd had since Matt, but then he turned out to be a serial killer so that was doomed from the start. And then he thought about Stiles. Stiles was Scott's best friend, always has and always will be. Something deep inside the beta stirred, because he knew he would never be someone's best friend. He would  _always_  be the beta. So, one or twice he snapped at the lanky teen. It was always half in frustration that Scott would always choose him, and half because he was the only one who could reply quickly enough to the sarcasm.

After about an hour of aimlessly walking around, Isaac ended up in front of his old house. The freezer was still there, too big to be hauled off to evidence. Tattered caution tape littered the yawn and clung onto the door. It was like he blinked and he was in his old room. Isaac let a little half smile cross over his face. So many good memories rested in the walls: His mother reading him to sleep when he was a boy, his brother waking him up on Christmas morning, making a whole town out of legos. 

If he tried really hard, he could hear the sounds of a breakfast being made in the kitchen. He could still feel the shove of his brother as he pushed Isaac out of bed and dragged him downstairs for food. Camden was always closer to his father, so he would help him set the table and take out the trash while Isaac helped his mother cook and clean. Camden teased him for it. 

Isaac grabbed a book from the shelf and took it out. The house was owned by the bank now, and if someone saw him in it he could be arrested, but he sat down on the bed anyway and cracked open  _Goodnight Moon_. He can't really remember his mom's voice anymore, but he has a fond memory of her reading the book to him almost every night. 

He curled his body onto the bed, chin resting on his knees, and opened the book. He traced his fingers over the first few words and red them aloud. "In the great green room, there was a telephone, and a red balloon." He read the rest of the book in silence and fell asleep on his bed, struggling to remember when his family was happy.

In the morning, Isaac was startled awake by the sound of an engine roaring down the street. It went by the house and turned right at the end of the block. He checked the time on his phone, but that didn't really do any good because it was dead. He was about to leave when he looked back at the book on his bed. Making a quick decision, he tucked it under his arm and jogged to Derek's place. 

There, he ate some breakfast, glad that it was Saturday, and went upstairs to plug in his phone. No missed calls or messages. He wondered what would happen if he got rid of his phone. How long would it take for people to notice? The werewolf shook the thought out of his head and sat down on the bed in the guest room. He refused to call it his. Calling it his means he would start to get attached, and when his mother died, Isaac realized that it was probably bad to do that. 

The mattress under him felt nothing like his old one. It was hard and springy and not very comfortable, but it beat sleeping in a freezer. He changed into sweats and a simple t-shirt, and curled up on the guest bed, opening the book once more. Something in him wanted to memorize the entire book and make sure he never forgot it again. His heart stirred with the memories of his mother, who was always much more calm and collected than his father, who always took his coaching job way too seriously. He would ride Camden for hours about lap time.

Isaac let out a huff that was too weak to be a laugh at the memory of Camden imitating their father. But then he had to go and sign up for the army, and his mom had to go and get sick. They left him! They left him all alone with his screwed up dad! They left him alone to get hurt. 

A drop of water landed on the hard cover of the book in his hands, and it wasn't until then did Isaac realize he was crying. He was crying for the anger he felt at his family, for the abandonment he felt when they left him alone with a madman, for the times where all he needed was a comforting touch. He was crying for the hole his in his heart that would never be filled.

Tears splashing down his cheeks, Isaac read and reread  _Goodnight Moon_ over and over until the words were imprinted in his brain, until he could hear his mother saying the words again. He read until the yellow text was just a blur.

He read until he could remember what it was like before the first bruise appeared over his eye.

**Author's Note:**

> I had to listen to Goodnight Moon for this.


End file.
